I just got off a plane from France. Check yourself.

"And, of course, Gabourey Sidibe is more likely to bitch-slap a boy than the reverse. Is she still juggling four or five boyfriends? “Yes, but I don’t want to get serious enough to call them boyfriends,” she says. “This one guy, I’ve deleted his number. I would text him at 7 p.m., and he’d be like, ‘I’m at BBQ’s.’ But the thing is, you don’t go to BBQ’s with your boys, you go with a girl. Then he’d call me at eleven. I’m like, ‘Why don’t you call me at six when you’re ready to go to BBQ’s?’ ” Her voice quickens with a touch of rage. “Don’t, don’t, don’t! I’m not a regular girl. I just got off a plane from France. You need to check yourself.” - from NYMag's article on Gabourey Sidibe, star of Precious.

This will be my dating mantra from now on.

Convo with my roommate about my date last night

Jennifer: how did last night go?
me: hmm. awesome. the date was great. he's kind of a rockstar, and he might have a kid.
but that's what you get for dating a 36 year old. better a toddler than herpes i always say.
Jennifer: at least you can ignore one of them!

So I'm single for the first time in like, 6 years...

And I'm 24. After my college boyfriend and my post college boyfriend, I haven't really been on my own in about 6 years. So I kind of missed that whole promiscuous college stage all the kids were into, and while I'm still kind of a prude, things are bound to get interesting.

I live in Manhattan in a great apartment (that's number 1), I have a fairly cool job that I love (that's number 2). But what's missing? A guy that doesn't suck (that's number 3, ya'll). After being dumped by my boyfriend of 2 years (it was all sorts of traumatic and dramatic, and I'm sure we'll talk about it later) I have no idea what I'm looking for. Luckily, I love going out on dates. Lots of them. Earlier this summer I kept telling myself there has to be a single girl guide somewhere that isn't this, this, or this (I'm pretty sure that last one is in my mom's Amazon cart and on its way to my apartment).

I'm not even talking about a guide or a set of rules for finding a man, because despite what Carrie told you, they're everywhere. It's not that they're hard to find, or even necessarily that they're hard to figure out. It's dating itself that's the beast here. I'm talking about some play by play of how to figure out dating, because let's face it - dating has changed. It's weird, and even though I'm having fun, I have no idea what I'm doing. Since I'm guaranteed to have successes, failures, meet weirdos and crazies, date waiters and stockbrokers, and, obviously, embarrass myself, it seems completely necessary to blog about it.